MYTHOS ATLAS

The eighth avatar of Vishnu: cowherd, prince, and counselor. As Arjuna's charioteer in the Mahabharata he delivers the Bhagavad Gita. In Bhakti traditions he is worshipped not as an avatar but as the supreme god himself.

The warrior goddess formed from the combined radiance of all the gods to slay the buffalo demon Mahishasura, whom no male god could defeat. In Shakta tradition she is not an emanation of the gods but the supreme power behind them.

The vanara (monkey) hero who leaps the ocean to find Sita and burns Lanka with his flaming tail. In Valmiki he is a mighty ally; in later Bhakti tradition he becomes a god in his own right, the embodiment of selfless devotion.

The great ascetic god of dissolution and renewal, worshipped as the supreme being in Shaiva traditions. Emerges from the Vedic storm god Rudra into one of Hinduism's most complex figures, destroyer, dancer, yogi, and householder.

Goddess of wisdom and disciplined warfare, born fully armed from the head of Zeus. Patron of Athens, of heroes like Odysseus, and of weavers and craftsmen.

King of Ithaca and hero of the Odyssey, famed for the wooden horse that ended the Trojan War. His ten-year voyage home, past the Cyclops, Circe, and the Sirens, is the archetypal tale of wit against adversity.

The Titan who sided with Zeus in the Titanomachy, then defied him by stealing fire for humankind. Punished by being chained to a mountain where an eagle devoured his ever-regenerating liver.

Daughter of Demeter, abducted by Hades to be queen of the dead. Having eaten pomegranate seeds below, she divides each year between the underworld and the living earth, dread queen and returning spring at once.